Today’s Wordle #642 Hint, Clues And Answer For Thursday, March 23rd

Eight days. That’s how long we have left in March. Soon enough, April will bring spring showers in order to facilitate May flowers. I’m not sure if May flowers do anything special for June, but clearly all of this is just preamble for the best month of the year, just like every month after June is just falling action. Time to reflect on why June is so awesome.

Still, we’re a ways off from the month of my birth, which I suppose I should be thankful for since it means I can remain that much younger for that much longer. I turn 42 this year, which feels older than I feel, though sometimes I feel older than I think of myself, since I mostly think I’m much younger than I am but feel much older than I’d like.

42 is also “the meaning of life, the universe, and everything” according to Douglas Addams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, which will be the theme of my birthday party this year. I’m planning to serve seafood so that when guests leave they can say, “So long, and thanks for all the fish” which, of course, is the sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

But enough about me! Let’s do this Wordle!

How To Solve Today’s Wordle

The Hint: Serious, boring, settled.

The Clue: This word has more consonants than vowels.

The Answer:

.

.

.

Every day when I’m done with my Wordle I go to the New York Times’ Wordle Bot website to run an analysis of my guessing game. That’s where I get the above screenshot each day. The Wordle Bot takes each guess and shows you how many words you’ve eliminated (or, rather, how many remain). It tallies your performance and offers up suggestions about what you could have done better.

Today, for instance, it suggested shale as a better choice than thief for my second guess. It also let me know that court is a “strong opening guess” but because it left me with so many remaining solutions (189) it was unlucky. If I guess some rare word I’ll get a pat on the back for originality and a strong vocabulary. Sometimes the Wordle Bot will chastise me for making a stupid mistake.

It’s useful! And it’s fun to try to beat the Bot each day, since you can also see his guesses once you’ve looked through your own. All of this, again, takes place after I’ve already figured out the word, since you need to do that before you can even use Wordle Bot.

In any case, my guessing game was only okay today, but this was a tricky word. I thought I was going to get it on guess #3 when all those green boxes started turning over, and I was admittedly a little shocked when the ‘N’ came up grey. The only remaining word I could think of that point was staid, which isn’t a word you hear very often but ended up being the Wordle. Huzzah!

Alas, somehow Wordle Bot got it in three today so that’s -1 points for yours truly. Zero for guessing in four and -1 for losing to the Bot. Boo!

I asked both ChatGPT and Google’s new Bard AI to help me with the etymology today. Here’s ChatGPT:

The word “staid” is derived from the Middle English word “stey,” which means “fixed in place” or “steady.” It was later influenced by the Old Norse word “stathr,” which has a similar meaning. Over time, “staid” evolved to mean “settled, sedate, or serious,” and it has been used in this sense since the 16th century.

And here’s Google Bard:

The word “staid” comes from the past participle of the verb “stay”, which means to remain in a place or to stop moving. The word “stay” comes from the Old English word “staegan”, which means to stand or to be in a place.

The word “staid” is first attested in the 16th century. It is an adjective that means “settled or sedate in character; not flighty or capricious”. It can also be used as a past tense and past participle of the verb “stay”.

I have to say, when it comes to etymology, ChatGPT is more interesting. But each AI gives slightly different information, and between the two you learn more.

Play Competitive Wordle Against Me!

I’ve been playing a cutthroat game of PvP Wordle against my nemesis Wordle But. Now you should play against me! I can be your nemesis! (And your helpful Wordle guide, of course).

Here are the rules:

• 1 point for getting the Wordle in 3 guesses.
• 2 points for getting it in 2 guesses.
• 3 points for getting it in 1 guess.
• 1 point for beating Erik
• 0 points for getting it in 4 guesses.
• -1 point for getting it in 5 guesses.
• -2 points for getting it in 6 guesses.
• -3 points for losing.
• -1 point for losing to Erik

Further Reading From Yours Truly:

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